Father, son arrested over Sh236,000 Gikomba M-Pesa fraud syndicate
The suspects, identified as Peter Mwendwa Musyoka and his son Dennis Musyoka, were apprehended at their Nyama Villa estate hideout by Shauri Moyo detectives.
A family suspected of running a mobile money scam targeting Nairobi’s M-Pesa operators will remain in custody following their arrest, where authorities recovered SIM cards, smartphones and other items linked to the fraud.
The 49-year-old father and his 23-year-old son were traced to their Komarock residence after detectives followed digital footprints connecting them to a Sh236,000 fraud at Gikomba market on September 2, 2025.
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The suspects, identified as Peter Mwendwa Musyoka and his son Dennis Musyoka, were apprehended by Shauri Moyo detectives at their Nyama Villa estate hideout.
“At their residence, detectives recovered used and unused SIM cards, ID cards, agent and paybill numbers from Safaricom, Airtel and Telkom, as well as laptops and smartphones believed to have been used in the scheme,” the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) said in a statement on Thursday.
Assorted items, including identity cards, were recovered following the arrest. (Photo: DCI/X)
The DCI noted that the father is the scheme's mastermind, introducing his son to the illicit trade and grooming him to defraud unsuspecting M-Pesa operators.
“Together, they form part of a broader syndicate targeting Nairobi’s mobile money dealers,” the DCI added.
Both suspects remain in custody, undergoing processing ahead of arraignment, while detectives continue pursuing other members of the syndicate.
The DCI also indicated that the arrest comes amid a broader rise in mobile money fraud in Nairobi. In another incident, authorities arrested a suspect who attempted to defraud a milk distributor of Sh1.8 million using edited mobile money text confirmations.
The company’s sales officer first detected the fraud after noticing inconsistencies in the payment records.
“Further investigation revealed that SMS confirmations for each transaction were traced to a different mobile network and did not appear in the distributor’s official records, prompting authorities to intervene,” the authorities said.
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